"The German?"
"Belgien."
"What is the French adjective?"
"Belge."
"There is a liberal newspaper published at Brussels, the capital of Belgium, which is often quoted as political authority in the United States, called the Indépendance Belge. What does the term mean?"
"'The Belgian Independent,' or 'The Independent Belgian,'" laughed Pelham.
"But the first word is a noun."
"'The Belgian Freeman,' or something of that sort."
"Doubtless it will bear that rendering, though it means literally 'Belgian Independence.' Belgium is bounded on the north, and partly on the east, by Holland; mostly on the east by the Rhenish provinces of Prussia, forming a part of Germany; on the south-west by France; and on the north-west by the German Ocean. It has an area of eleven thousand three hundred and thirteen miles; that is, it is about the size of Maryland, or of Massachusetts and Connecticut united.
"Its population in 1863 was about five millions, equal to the aggregate of New York and Massachusetts. In New England, in 1860, there were fifty persons to the square mile; in Massachusetts, which is the most densely peopled of the United States, one hundred and seventy; but Belgium has four hundred and forty souls to the square mile, and is the most thickly-settled country in the world.